Hayley Smith (American Dad!)
| American Dad! character | |
| Hayley Smith | |
|---|---|
| Gender: | Female |
| Age: | 18-19 |
| Religion: | Religously ambiguous |
| Political Leaning: | Liberal |
| Voice Actor: | Rachael MacFarlane |
Hayley Smith is the daughter of Stan and Francine Smith on the animated television series, American Dad!. She's voiced by Rachael MacFarlane, the younger sister of one of the series co-creators, Seth MacFarlane.
Biography and personality
Template:Spoiler Unlike her father and her brother, Steve Smith, Hayley is ultra-liberal (possibly a member of the Green Party--in "Stan Knows Best", she dyed her hair green and went to a Green Party rally). She often helps the homeless, is in favor of gun control, is a casual marijuana user, and is a strict vegetarian (although she ate meat in the episode "Camp Refoogee"). Hayley seems to be an expert on women in American History and promotes women's rights. This causes a great amount of distrust for Stan. When she was younger, Hayley and Stan got along very well, and indeed, they have similar personality traits, such as stubbornness and distrust of those they disagree with. She still lives with her parents and goes to Groff Community College, though she moved out temporarily after a bitter argument with Stan.
Hayley is almost always the one in the family that doesn't go crazy or become selfish. For example, she helped to unionize the homeless men Stan paid to fight each other, helped free foster children that Roger had enslaved, and is the one most likely to stand up for people's rights when her family tries to exploit people. Nevertheless, she is also sometimes seen as hypocritical---for example, in "Camp Refoogee" she went to an African refugee camp and swore to help the people during the few hours she expected to be there; however, after finding out they would be there for three weeks, she went to the spa-like U.N. aid base (and went so far as to eat steak, despite being a vegetarian). On another occasion in "American Dream Factory," after arguing for the rights of illegal aliens, she proved willing to have her ex-boyfriend deported. Other members of the household seem to find her annoying---even Roger the Alien, one of the more apolitical characters, once shouted at her to just "let it go!" as she was ranting about his voting for President George W. Bush ("Never!" Hayley replies.)
Romance
Hayley has a on-and-off boyfriend named Jeff, who is a vegetarian, as well (though apparently less so than Hayley). They sometimes go hiking and use marijuana together. She once dumped Jeff, because he agrees with everything that she says. During this time, she slept with Stan's boss, Deputy-Director Bullock, a conservative. This happened after they had an argument; he apologized and she ended up sleeping with him at his house. At first, Stan was outraged, but he later ignored their relationship and decided it was a great chance to be promoted to "Deputy-Deputy Director". Hayley later dumped Bullock before announcing Stan's promotion. Bullock learned that a more assertive Jeff came back into her life. Being very upset, Bullock promised Stan the promotion if he killed Jeff. Stan didn't kill Jeff, but ended up battling his boss upon him insulting Hayley. Before Stan finished him off, Bullock gave him the job.
When the Smith family was relocated to Saudi Arabia, Hayley also slept with a Shawarma King guy named Fazim because she was impressed by his (false) claim about being a tormented, conflicted member of Al Qaeda, but presumably did not tell Jeff of her infidelity. In "Dungeons and Wagons" the two are shown dating, but again Hayley dumps Jeff for being too clingy; he then goes on to develop a hobby of playing Dungeons and Dragons (or a similar game) with Steve instead of begging Hayley to get back together, as she had suspected, and she becomes jealous and, with Klaus' help, kills Steve in the game. Rather than winning Jeff back, however, this makes Jeff horrified at how mean Hayley is, by destroying Steve in the one thing he was good at; Hayley tries to win Jeff back by finding a way to bring Steve's character back to life, but then decides to date another player she met in the game instead. Given their track record, however, Jeff likely will appear in later episodes as Hayley's boyfriend again.
She has also turned to exotic dancing in order to pay for her erased tuition in "Stan Knows Best", and prostitution to supplement the family's income during hard times in "Failure is not a Factory-Installed Option".
Religion
In the episode "Roger Codger", Hayley is clearly an atheist at the beginning; she says that God is fake, but later in the episode, when Francine started to become an atheist, Hayley was trying hard to revive Francine's faith in God; it is unclear if Hayley was acting out of some sense of faith herself or if she merely wanted to help Francine's sense of bitter disappointment. Two episodes later in "Deacon Stan, Jesus Man", when Roger asked how church was, she said it was a waste of time. This could mean she's not a devout Christian, that she is still an atheist, or that she simply does not like the institution of church, particularly the family's church with its completely apathetic pastor. In "Tears of a Clooney," however, after contracting a terminal disease, she makes a "promise to God" to do good if she survives, which may mean that her sickness revived a sense of faith in her, at least temporarily. She once called on "Gaia" to help her protect a tree from destruction, which may indicate a Neopagan or Wiccan belief.
Quotes
- Hayley: How can you think of eating that cake? Don't you know how many poor cows were raped, or as you claim "milked", to make that cake?
Stan: Shut up, Hayley.
- Hayley: Shut up, Steve. I have a term paper due.
Steve: Ooh, community college. Big girl, big girl. Think they'll save you a table when you're waitressing at the Olive Garden?
Hayley: Think you'll hit puberty before you turn 14?
- Hayley: (about selling herself for sex) I've... done things.
- Steve: Mom, dad, I think I'm pregnant. (Steve shows his belly and everyone gasps)
Hayley: You can't be pregnant! You're a virgin... and a boy!
- Hayley: (about a mail-order Russian bride) She is not a whore until one of you marries her.
Steve: But you're not married and you're a total whore!
Hayley: That's because I was born in America!
- Hayley: You may be as beautiful as Kevin Bacon on the outside, but on the inside you're as ugly as Tommy Lee Jones...on the outside
- Hayley: (after Stan locked her in the basement) Hello father. Wondering how I escaped from the basement?
Stan: No, not really.
Hayley: Oh. But it involved training rats.